RPI says this season is what counts most

Previous postseason losses at home have nothing to do with this season

TROY >> Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute needed one victory last weekend to secure a home-ice berth in the opening round of the ECAC Hockey playoffs.

The Engineers got that victory, 3-0 at Brown one week ago, and nailed down seventh place in the league and will host 10th-place Dartmouth in the best-of-3 preliminary round series at Houston Field House.

In recent years, playing in the postseason at the Field House has not been much of an advantage to RPI.

They’ve lost four straight series there since 2006, including a trio of head-scratching defeats.

In 2006, league newcomer Quinnipiac, coming from the weaker Atlantic Hockey conference, finished in 10th place in their first season in the ECACH.

Rensselaer finished seventh but couldn’t handle the Bobcats in the preliminary round, as Quinnipiac won in straight games, 2-1, 4-2. Many believe that’s the reason longtime coach Dan Fridgen was not retained.

In 2010, the Engineers finished sixth with a 10-9-3 record (17-15-4 overall) and Brown was 11th with a 6-12-4 mark (9-16-4). The Bears stole Game 1, 3-1 and though RPI was dominant in a 4-1 victory in Game 2, the Engineers couldn’t come all the way back and lost the deciding third game, 3-2.

It was worse in the prelim round of 2011.

Colgate was the league’s last-place team that season, winning only four league games (4-15-3, 7-24-3 overall). Rensselaer’s 11-9-2 record was good for fifth place (19-11-5 overall).

The Engineers controlled Game 1 and won, 4-2. The Raiders were the hungrier team in Game 2 but Chase Polacek’s second goal of the game, on a power play late in the second period, pulled RPI to within 3-2. Colgate added a pair of empty-net goals within the final 1:11 for a 5-2 decision.

Anything can happen in the final scheduled game of a series and in Game 3, the Raiders stayed with the Engineers and won the series on Robbie Bourdon’s goal at 10:06 of the second overtime.

The fact that Colgate then marched into Union and beat the top-seeded Dutchmen in three games didn’t make RPI followers feel much better.

Last year, was just as big a shocker.

Rensselaer lost just one of its final 12 league games to zoom from 11th place to second with a 12-7-3 record (17-12-5 overall).

After seventh-seeded Brown (7-9-6, 11-12-6 during the season) downed 10th seed Clarkson, the Bears ecame into HFH and repeated their 2010 upset of the Engineers.

Again, Brown was the tougher team in Game 1 and earned a 3-1 victory and even though the Engineers pushed the Bears all over the ice in a 6-2 triumph of Game 2, the momentum wasn’t enough.

The Engineers seemed to have all the momentum they needed entering the third period of Game 3, after Mark McGowan and Mike Zalewski both scored late in the second period to pull the Engineers within 3-2.

Rensselaer outshot Brown 42-17 in the game, including 27-7 after the first period.

It wasn’t enough.

Senior goalie Anthony Borelli, who hadn’t started until late in the season, was more than sharp in Game 3.

The crushing defeat — remember, RPI had beaten eventual national champion Yale in both meetings — marked the third time in four seasons the higher-seeded, at-home Engineers suffered a huge, upset loss.